I was born during the first week of 1939. Put down your calculator. Yes, that makes me 75 years old this year.

Nobody knew it at the time, but 1939 would turn out to be one of the most culturally relevant and dramatic years of the 20th century.

So many milestones occurred 75 years ago, that it’s impossible to list them all in one article. Here’s a short sampling:

Hollywood released both “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz” in ‘39. There was no Batman movie that year because the character made his debut on comic pages in the spring. CBS TV began broadcasting, but outside of those gathered around primitive sets at the 1939 New York World’s Fair few saw it, A dark chapter began when the Nazis invaded Poland on Sept. 1, touching off World War II.

Baseball also had three big moments in 1939.

The very first Little League game was played that year in Williamsport, Pa. This began a rite of passage for many American children. It’s hard to imagine a spring or summer in parks such as Lincoln, Bayonne County, North Hudson or other local parks without seeing kids having fun running around in colorful uniforms with the names of mom-and-pop businesses stenciled on them.

The Yankees cruised to their customary World Series win in 1939, but the bigger news was the premature retirement of the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig. On May 2, the legendary first baseman took himself out of the game for the first time in years, ending a 2,130 game streak. It was shocking to fans and teammates alike.

A few months later, on July 4, the team gathered all of the greats from the past to pay tribute to Gehrig, who had by then been diagnosed with the fatal disease that now bears his name.

He declined to speak to the assembled crowd until his manager quietly urged him to do so. Gehrig then made an impromptu speech that still resonates 75 years later. The words of Gehrig, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” are as famous as almost any other uttered in American history.

Baseball honored its own history with the opening of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. While the game actually debuted in Hoboken, this little upstate village has become a shrine for die-hard fans and the curious alike.

Dedicated on June 12, 1939, the first class included titans like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. There are now 300 inductees. In addition to the plaques on the wall, Hall of Fame President Jeff Idleson and his staff have kept the museum up to date as a world-class 21st century exhibition of baseball’s greatest players, teams and moments. It definitely doesn’t feel like a 75-year-old building.

In a few years, guys like Mike Piazza, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter will get their turn at induction. I’m sure the roads up to Cooperstown will be packed. Don’t wait until then. If you haven’t been, or even if you have, I encourage you to make a trip this year to the place that’s been inspiring and thrilling baseball fans since 1939.